The Grahams and the McConnels were neighbors. Nancy's father, Virginia-born Joseph Graham, married Mary Glover in 1816, in Guernsey County. In 1829 he was one of the witnesses in a land transaction between John and Rachel Stevens, William's maternal grandparents, when they conveyed property to their son James, providing he pay $30 each to his siblings, including Fanny Stephens McConnel, William's mother. Joseph Graham's homestead was less than a mile from James McConnel's homestead.
Mrs. Hyde tells that William and Nancy were
married March 21, 1836, by Robert Naylor, Deacon of the Methodist Church of Woodsfield, Ohio. . .James G. Leyburn, in "The Scotch Irish/A Social History", writing of frontier society, tells us
Weddings, baptisms, and funerals . . .must depend upon the arrival of the itinerant preacher . . .
From every part of the frontier came stories of wedding celebrations, to which the whole community had been orally invited: the occasion generally begain with the young men racing for a bottle of whisky, the winner having the right to be the first to kiss the bride; and it ended with the "bedding" of the couple, accompanied by ribald good wishes for the beginning of a large family and finally by a "shivaree" (charivari) - a raucous serenade on pots and pans.
William and Nancy were products of their culture, just as we all are, and there is no reason to believe their wedding was substantially different than the norm.
Their first son James was born the following year, with their second son David born the year after, and Joseph two years later - wedding wishes for a large family were indeed being fulfilled.
On March 2, 1840 William bought 40 acres in Seneca Township, Guernsey County (now Noble County), over the ridge and a mile away from his father James' land and cornering on the property of Joseph Graham, his father-in-law. Johnathan Morris had received the homestead patent on this tract five years earlier; in all likelihood he was the husband of Nancy Glover and therefore Nancy Graham McConnel's uncle.
The decade was not without its heartache. In June 1842 Nancy's and William's five-year old son James, their first born, died. Three years later in 1845, three of James' grandparents also died: Mary Glover Graham, Nancy's mother; Fanny Stephens McConnel and James McConnel, William's parents. All three were in their early 50's. In March 1848 Jonas, Nancy's and William's sixth child died at birth.
On April 7, 1848 William sold the 40 he bought from Morris to John Miley, Nancy's younger brother Samuel's father-in-law. Later the same year William, Nancy and their four children (David, Joseph, Mary Jane, and Benjamin) migrated to Birmingham, Van Buren County, in southeast Iowa. Also migrating at about the same time were Nancy's father Joseph Graham, his second wife, Letitia, and his teenage sons Joseph Jr and Simon; and Nancy's sister Margaret and her husband Benjamin Casner. In all likelihood they traveled together so as to be able help each other along the way.
From Mrs. Hyde's research we know that the family spend about six years in Birmingham in northern Van Buren County. Birmingham was a thriving manufacturing town with a lumber mill, grist and flour mill, plow and wagon factory, creamery, tannery, pork-packing plant, woolen factory and cheese factory. During the Birmingham years four more sons were born - John, Francis, George and Charles.
Mrs. Hyde also tells us that in 1855 the family moved further west to Benton Twp., Wayne Co., near Corydon. It's about halfway between the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, less than twenty miles north of the Missouri border. The Mormons had traveled through Wayne County when fleeing Illinois nine years earlier.
In June 3, 1856 William was granted "cash entry sale" homestead on 200 acres in Section 34, T69N, R22W, Wayne Co. (see homestead records) However, in July 1860, at the time of the census, the family was counted in Union Twp., at least six miles further north than the original homestead, with Bethlehem as their post office. William was farming and valued his real estate holdings at $1000 and his personal property at $1038. Jabez Clark, another farmer, either a hired hand or a boarder, was also counted in the McConnel household. Sons David and Joseph were also listed as farming. Seventeen-year old Mary Jane listed her occupation as milliner.
In May 1861 David tried to enlist in the Union Army but was rejected due to an ankle that had been broken and improperly set. He headed west. Three months later, his brother Joseph enlisted in Company I, 4th Iowa Infantry, Union Army. He died December of the same year at Rolla, Missouri, possibly in a military hospital.
Daughter Mary Jane was the first McConnel offspring to wed, marrying James Lawson December 1864. Benjamin married Elizabeth Hall June 1867 and two years later they and their infant son Will and Benjamin's brother John Wesley migrated to the Lower Boise area, in what would become Canyon County, where they joined David who had migrated seven years earlier. In the following decade, the other brothers would follow.
By the time of the 1870 census, the remaining family was counted in Benton Twp., Corydon post office, on property valued at $4000, with personal property valued at $1800. In the decade since the previous cencus, he had quadrulped his holdings.
The following summer the Jesse James gang robbed the Ocobock Bros. Bank in Corydon during an outdoor town meeting promoting the railroad. The family was probably living about three miles west of Corydon at this time. It's unknown whether McConnels were depositors in the fledgling, one-room, frame bank. If William was nearly as curious as his grandson Roy or his great-grandson Bill, William would definitely been in town to hear The Hon. Henry Clay Dean " extol the benefits of an extension of the Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad (later to become part of the Rock Island) that would bring the railroad to town, provided that Wayne Countians could raise $100,000 or so to help pay for construction." A railroad would greatly improve their access to markets.
Son David returned to Corydon in September 1871 to marry Mary Maria "Mina" Rogers. The decade was marked by weddings and leave-takings as sons married and went west. In 1877 John returned from Idaho and married Sarah "Lavina" Lawson, daughter of Joseph Lawson, older brother of James. Laura Kirby, Charles's fiancee, traveled west with George and his family in October 1879. Charles and Laura were married at John's and Lavina's house the night the party arrived.
At the time of the 1880 census, William, Nancy and their two youngest sons, Samuel and Elmer were on the farm in Benton Twp., Wayne County. Samuel married Aura Adams three years later. And at the time of the 1885 state census, William and Nancy were still in Benton Twp. and Samuel and Aura were about four miles away.
In the summer of 2010 a descendant of Mary Jane McConnel Lawson discovered a book in her mother's papers . . .
In the very front of this book the name Nancy McConnel is written, and the date 1852. On the next page is the name William McConnel. In the most beautiful handwriting, (and of course written with ink that had been dipped from an ink well), was poetry, hymns, prayers, and thoughts, all written by someone named Benjamin Hartley, and dated 1836. All of these are very beautifully written, you can tell this man was very well educated. He often talked about Rockdale.
This goes on for about 28 pages, and then the entries change to some type of ledger book. It goes on for about 30 or 40 pages listing work that was done for people, and the cost, as well as the cost of bushels of food, barrels of flour, and coffins that were made for people. The dates in that section go from 1851 to 1854, but the listings aren't always in dated order. It looks like someone just opened a page and entered information, not bothering to notice the previously entered date. Most of these entries are marked through in pencil, and underneath written in pencil it says - Settled in full. Another entry is dated 1861, and lists the names of people that worked in some kind of mill, and what they got paid (or how many hours they worked, I can't tell) It lists laying a fence, binding wheat, and making a coffin! The next entry is a correspondence from Rockdale dated 1836, and then the next page is a ledger with the date 1866. . .
The next entry is interesting and says, "Received of Wm McConnel fifty dollars on contract for four hundred bushels of corn, at twenty-seven and one half cents per bushel, given under my hand this 26th day of November 1875." (It's signed Amos Feigh.)
The next page is a recipe for wine, and then the ledger entries start again. The next five pages list a very detailed inventory of property sold at Wm McConnel sale, dated Oct. 2nd, 1880. It lists EVERYTHING from barrels to saw, pitch forks (.45 cents apiece!), coal buckets, windows, sleds. . . AND cows. . . red, white, spotted . . . most for $27.00 each!
In the fall of 1886 William and Nancy moved to Idaho. The following March Nancy, age 70, died of spotted fever at the home of son Charles in Boise.
There's a family tradition that William taught school on McConnel Island. Acting on a tip from a friend, the fall of 2008 I talked to Greta Hedges Cummings who attended the frame, one-room "Island School" in the '40's as did her father before her. The school closed before her younger siblings completed their grade school education and they went to school in Roswell. She described it as being about a mile or so east of the intersection of Scott Pitt Road and Hexon Road, where Hexon makes a sharp bend. She said it was close enough to the river that the children would slip away to the river bank on recesses and the teacher would call them back with the bell. She remembered one year when the teacher sent the children home early due to rising flood water that eventually flooded the school yard. Of McConnels, however, she knew not. Scott Pitt Road dead-ends in Benjamin's 1880's holdings, with David's homestead west of the road and Charles', to the east, south of Benjamin's. In June 1900 David and his family were the only McConnels still living on "McConnel Island."
Ten years later William died at the age of 82, also at the home of their son Charles in Boise.
obituary, funeral notices and photo of tombstone
William's obiturary, "Times-Republican"
For more information on the Glover family, see Garry L. McLaughlin's website
For John Stephens documents, see Cecil Larsen's entry under John Stephens World Connect Family Tree, Database: Workfile.
Mrs. Lorena Estlow Hyde, granddaughter of John Wesley McConnel, great-granddaughter of William McConnel, in 1983 wrote a McConnel family history based on ten years of research that took her to 13 courthouses from Iowa to Ohio where she examined public records. She located the properties owned by family members and then searched the for nearby cemeteries. She also inherited her father's Bible and his collection of newspaper clippings and obituaries. She has left an invaluable legacy for the rest of us who have not traveled to these locations! Regretably Mrs. Hyde does not always tell us exactly what documents she saw at the various courthouses. Nevertheless, she has been my primary source and research starting point since she was actually on the ground in the various locations, something that doesn't often happen in this era of internet genealogy.
For a detailed account of the Octobock Bank robbery, see When Jesse James Robbed Corydon's Bank.
Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. - Thomas Jefferson
Copyright © 2009 - Sharon McConnel. All Rights Reserved.
